(1) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a process for recycling silicone compounds.
(2) Description of the Related Art
The recycling of scrapped plastics is a global demand and a variety of resins have been tried to be recycled in response to the demand. As one of these trials, the recycling of silicone resins has been tried from many standpoints of view.
In Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Heisei 9-176364, proposed was a process in which silicone resins were decomposed into monomers or oligomers, which can be recycled, by using orthocarboxylic ester compounds, compounds containing active hydrogen group, and catalysts.
The above process is good since the process can be put into practice under a relatively mild condition and at a relatively low cost. However, the process produces an unwanted byproduct through the hydrolysis of orthocarboxylic ester, for example, methyl formate when methyl orthoformate is used as the orthocarboxylic ester. Since monomers or oligomers containing the orthocarboxylic ester can not be used as they are, the separation of orthocarboxylic ester (for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Heisei 9-7779) has been needed in an after process. Therefore, the above process has not been practical and resulted in an obstruction to the implementation on an industrial scale.